Senator Shelley Moore Capito has shown sincere appreciation for the Trump administration’s daring decision to dissolve a significant climate policy hatched during the unclear days of the Biden era. The questionable policy’s aim was to curtail greenhouse gas emissions from power plants, notably those kindled by coal and natural gas. Capito’s response amidst a briefing with West Virginia reporters reflects a breath of clarity, ‘Repealing the Clean Power Plan 2.0 brings us back in touch with common sense.’
The original plan was instituted by the Biden Administration’s U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, enforcing stringent requirements on utilities to either decrease or capture emissions linked to climate change. However, the suggested methods, which included the utilization of carbon capture technology, were ineffective due to their prohibitive expense and the unfeasibility of widespread innovation.
The Biden administration’s vision for these standards for coal and gas-fueled power plants were misguided at best. They claimed that it would prevent the emission of nearly 617 million metric tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) by 2042. A closer look reveals a fantasist’s view on environmental protection, counting on the reduction of tens of thousands of tons of particulate matter, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen oxide.
Strip back the veneer of the Biden administration’s ‘pitch’, and one would see the suffocating enforcement measures collapsed under their own weight. They would essentially lead to the premature retirement of every coal plant, if not before 2035, then certainly by that year. The requirement was a lofty 90% capture of carbon emissions, an impracticable demand given the current realities of technology.
The repercussions of the Biden administration’s untenable approach aren’t exclusive to coal. Capito argues that natural gas faces a similar fate. She rightly raises the alarm of an imminent power shortage in this country. Against all common sense, the Clean Power Plan threatens to eradicate our base load power, thus potentially thrusting us into a precarious situation.
Heralding the return of reason, the Trump administration boldly declared the roll back of this regulatory boondoggle, colloquially known as Clean Power Plan 2.0. The EPA Administrator echoes the calls of many when stating that the regulations borne of the Obama and Biden era were systematically ‘phasing out coal, oil and gas’.
In a landmark victory for the sovereignty of American energy choices, the U.S. Supreme Court nullified the original 2015 Clean Power Plan in, arguably one of the most important, West Virginia v. EPA. This legal wrangling determined that the EPA had overstepped its bounds under the Clean Air Act in the bid to regulate Americans’ energy choices and dramatically alter the nation’s electrical fuel mix.
As the fog of the Biden-Harris era’s clouded approach to affordable, reliable American energy dissipates with the rollback of these restrictive environmental standards, applause echoes from the corners of reason. True support for the working people is finally shining through. The annulment of malicious regulations teetering on the brink of deceit amounts to an end of the war on energy.
American energy stands proud and dominant once again, as it should. Biden and Harris’ reckless enthusiasm for disarray found form in the Green New Scam. But with their job-destroying regulations cast aside, the charade has ended. American energy is once again in the capable hands it deserves.
The EPA regulations, while coated in environmental concern, were nothing more than a terminal verdict for every coal-fired power plant in America. They threatened the livelihoods of thousands, spelled a death sentence for numerous coal mines, and hinted at astronomically inflated cost of power for every American; a cost no average citizen could bear with ease.